Saturday, 31 May 2014

Actress With And Wihtout Makeup Biography

Source:- Google.com.pk

Vyjayanthimala Bali (born 13 August 1936), also known by the mononym Vyjayanthimala, is an Indian film actress, Bharathanatyam dancer, Carnatic singer, dance choreographer and parliamentarian. She made her debut in the Tamil language film Vazhkai in 1949 and in the Telugu Film Jeevitham in 1950 later became one of the most prominent actresses of South India and the golden era in Bollywood;

Vyjayanthimala was one of the biggest Bollywood stars in a career lasting almost two decades. She was also the first south Indian actress to become a national star and "paved a way" for other south Indian actresses to foray into Bollywood. Vyjayanthimala is an accomplished dancer and was one of those who introduced semi-classical dance to Bollywood. Her subsequent dance numbers in her films had earned her the title of "twinkle toes". She was also referred to as one of the first female superstars of Hindi cinema and was known as "Numero Uno actress" for her "illustrious career in 1950s and 1960s".She was born in Triplicane situated near Parthasarathy Temple in an orthodox and religious Tamil Brahmin family to M. D. Raman and Vasundhara Devi. Her mother was a leading actress in Tamil Cinema in 1940s where her film Mangama Sabatham was the first ever Tamil film to be declared a "colossal" hit at the box office. She used to call her mother by her name as her mother was only 16 years older than her. Similarly, she also called her father "Anna", meaning elder brother, as her father happened to be the eldest in their family and everyone called him "Anna" which is common in a Hindu joint family. She was raised primarily by her maternal grandmother, Yadugiri Devi, and M.D. Raman. She was also known as "Papakutty", which means little child. Her ancestors were from Mysore (now in Karnataka). In 1938, her grandfather Gopalacharya, the late Mandayam Dhati, started a nursing home on Narayan Shastri Road, Mysore.

At the age of five, Vyjayanthimala was chosen to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XII while her mother was an audience in 1940 at Vatican City.Vyjayanthi did her schooling from Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Presentation Convent, Church Park, Chennai. She learned Bharata Natyam from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and Carnatic music from Manakkal Sivaraja Iyer. She had her arangetram at the age of 13 and started performing in Tamil Nadu later.Daughter of Shri M.D.Raman and Shrimati Vasundhara Devi, Vyjayanthimala was born in Madras (Chennai) on August 13, 1936. Schooling was in Presentation Convent and Good Shepherd Convent, both in Madras. She started taking lessons in Bharatanatyam dancing from a very early age and was already performing on stage while still in high school. A family friend, Shri M.V.Raman, after watching her dance performance, launched her in AVM's Tamil film Vazhkai in 1949. Initially, Vyjayanthimala's orthodox family did not want her to enter the film industry. But eventually, her foresighted grandmother, Yadugiri Devi, who often watched over young Vyjayanthimala's life and guided her career, consented and let Vyjayanthimala play a role in Vazhkai. The film was such a great success that it was re-made in Telugu (Jeevitham). The Telugu version was also a hit. AVM Productions then decided to go to Bombay and do the film in Hindi. Vyjayanthimala was chosen to do the Hindi version too. Vyjayanthimala had the advantage of being fluent in Hindi as she had studied Hindi at Hindi Prachar Sabha in Madras. The Hindi version of the movie, Bahar, was released in 1951 and it was also a commercial success. Tamilian Vyjayanthimala thus entered the world of Bombay based Hindi films.

In her entire film career, which lasted for two decades, Vyjayanthimala has acted in 63 films all together. A complete list of her films can be found under Filmography. (It is to be noted that she has been credited in various ways in the film titles such as Vyjayanthimala, Vyjayantimala, Vijayanthimala, Vijayantimala, Vyjayanti Mala, Vaijayanthimala, Vaijayantimala, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Vyjayantimala Bali, and so forth.)

Vyjayanthimala is a professional Bharatanatyam dancer. She had become a movie actress and dominated the silver screen in the 1950's and 1960's. But then she got married, retired from films when she was at her peak, and went back to pursue her number one passion - dancing. She not only dances, she also choreographs and composes. In her own words, dancing took her around the world much more than the movies did. She has performed her art in many countries of the world. The most notable of them being her performances at:

The United Nations 20th Anniversary Celebrations of the Human Rights Day in 1969 in New York, USA. (She was the first Indian Dancer to ever give a Bharatanatyam recital at the United Nations.)

The International Opera House in Sydney, Australia.

The Adelaide Festival in Adelaide, Australia.

The Royal Opera Rallst Festival in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Holland Festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The Autumn Festival in Paris, France.

Vyjayanthimala is also the recipient of many awards and honors. The most notable of them being:

Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award (1957) for Devdas (1955).

(She refused to accept this award on the grounds that her role was not of a supporting actress. She believed that her role was as important as the heroine's role in the movie.)

Filmfare Best Actress Award (1959) for Sadhna (1958).

Filmfare Best Actress Award (1962) for Gunga Jumna (1961).

Filmfare Best Actress Award (1965) for Sangam (1964).

Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (1996)

The title "Padmashri" awarded by the Government of India in 1968.

Arasavai Natya Kalaingnar by Tamil Nadu Government for excellence in Natya.

Kalaimani Award given by Tamil Nadu Government in 1979.

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1982.

The Degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by the Annamalai University, Chennai in 1995.

Aside from being a dancer and an actress, Vyjayanthimala is an accomplised golfer. She was introduced to the game by her late husband, Dr. C.L.Bali (whom she had married on March 10, 1968). Vyjayanthimala has played in National Golf Championship (15 Handicap). Her interest in golf continues even today, and she was still playing in recent years when she was almost 70 years old or may be even older.

Vyjayanthimala is also interested in politics and has actively participated in Indian politics. She was elected to the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) twice and was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament) once. She was very close to the then Indian Prime Minister, Shrimati Indira Gandhi.

Vyjayanthimala, now over 70, still actively pursues her number one passion - dancing. She continues to do dance research and choreography and on special occasions even performs on stage. She is the Life President and Trustee of Natyalaya Academy of Classical Bharatanatyam and Music in her hometown Chennai. She is also the Founder Trustee of Dr. Bali Pharma Foundation - a charitable trust, to serve the poor and downtrodden and to look after the welfare of women and children. She has now distanced herself from the movie industry and Mumbai (Bombay).

Vyjayanthimala has one son, Suchindra Bali, who is currently trying to establish himself as an actor in the glamorous movie industry of Bollywood.

Acting career

When director M. V. Raman was looking for a new face to cast in AVM Productions's Vazhkai, he saw Vyjayanthimala performing Bharata Natyam in Chennai's Gokhale Hall. He tried to convince her grandmother, who was apprehensive about Vyjayanthimala joining films as she felt it would come in the way of her education and dance. Vyjayanthimala played a college girl named Mohana Shivashankaralingam and acted along with senior actors S. V. Sahasranamam, M. S. Draupadi, T. R. Ramachandran and K. Sankarapani. The movie was a big success and was remade in Telugu after one year as Jeevitham with a slightly different cast, namely C. H. Narayana Rao, S. Varalakshmi and C. S. R. Anjaneyulu. This film also enjoyed great success upon release. For the Telugu version, Vyjayanthimala did her own voice dubbing with a little assistance from her father who knew Telugu well and coached her during the filming process. Vyjayanthimala also did a guest appearance in the 1950 film Vijayakumari which had actress T. R. Rajakumari in dual role. She danced for the song "laalu...laalu...laalu" which was choreographed by Vedantam Raghavaiah. Though the film was not a commercial success but her western-style of dance became popular and was considered as one of the major highlights of the film.

The success of her Tamil film Vazhkai in South India inspired AVM Productions to remake it in Hindi as Bahar in 1951. In their first Hindi venture, they decided to cast Vyjayanthimala again in the lead role with Karan Dewan, Om Prakash and Pandari Bai (who was credited as Padmini in the film). She learned Hindi at the Hindi Prachar Sabha to dub her own voice for her character in the film. Upperstall.com in their review, wrote that "She does bring the film to life with her dances though, something which was new then for the North Indian audience".The film became sixth highest grossing film of 1951 with a verdict of box-office hit.

After the success of all her debut films in all three languages, Vyjayanthimala again acted in multilingual film which was produced by Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar of AVM Productions. The first version was in Tamil as Penn where she co-starred with actor Gemini Ganesan, S. Balachandran and Anjali Devi. The song "Kalyanam...venum" sung by J. P. Chandrababu for S. Balachandran became an instant hit. The second version was in Telugu titled Sangham which was released in the same year with N. T. Rama Rao, Vyjayanthimala, S. Balachandran and Anjali Devi in the lead. The Tamil and the Telugu films were big successes across South India. The film was once again remade in Hindi as Ladki starring Bharat Bhushan, Kishore Kumar while Vyjayanthimala along with Anjali Devi reprised her role from the original film. Her performance was described by Upperstall.com as, "Vyjayanthimala's dances are the film's saving grace although it is unintentionally funny now to see how deliberate and obviously tacky the sequences are which lead into her dances[...]Ladki too makes no real demands on 'feminist' tomboy Vyjayanthimala histrionically". The movie became second highest grossing film of 1953.